At Temple Learning Academy We Have Very High Expectations of Behaviour with Regard to All

Introduction

At Temple Learning Academy we have very high expectations of behaviour with regard to all members of the school community because we believe that without a firm commitment to good discipline, effective teaching and learning cannot take place. We also believe that good discipline has its roots in a stimulating environment which grip a learner’s interest and imagination to such a degree that thoughts of misbehaviour become irrelevant.

We believe that that the framework outlined in this document, coupled with regular explicit statements to the learners about agreed standards, codes of practice and behaviour, which are also regularly shared with parents, will contribute to an atmosphere conducive to high standards of learning and behaviour.

Learners, with the support of their class teacher, will agree their own set of individual classroom rules, including rights and responsibilities, at the beginning of each academic year, as part of the induction process. These will be published outside the classroom for all visitors to see and will be based on the values of this policy.

This policy was developed from consultation with staff, Governors, and parents across the Temple Newsam Learning Partnership Trust. The policy follows the recommendations and principles set out by the Department of Education:

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/learnersupport/behaviour/f0076803/advice-forPrincipals-and-school-staff-on-behaviour-and-discipline

The policy principally relates to learners but it is important to note that the principles set out here relate to positive relationships and behaviour of all; this includes amongst staff e.g. in relation to a bullying or racist incident.

Aims, expectations and principles

It is a primary aim of our school that every member of the school community feels happy, valued and respected, and that each person is treated fairly and well. We are a caring community with mutual trust and respect for all.

The school has three school rules for its learners. However, the primary aim of this policy is to promote good choices which lead to effective relationships so that everyone can support each other, work together and learn well. It aims to promote relationships which are happy, safe and secure. This policy aims to help learners to become positive, responsible and increasingly independent members of the school community.

The school rewards good behaviour, as it believes that this will develop an ethos of kindness and co-operation. The policy is designed to promote good behaviour, not merely deter anti-social behaviour.

Central within the policy is choice: we refer to good choices (which lead to good consequences) and choices which are bad (which lead to negative consequences, usually based around our system of warnings). There are two key reasons for using the language of ‘choice’:

·  it promotes self-management of behaviour and enables some reflection of what behavioural choices exist(ed) i.e. there are always different behavioural options (we don’t accept / expect that some learners will always behave in such a way) and;

·  it avoids labelling learners - instead, we refer to the choices we all make and that we should always try to make good choices. See Appendix 5.

Praise is key to nurturing motivated, engaged learners who make good choices and consequently build positive relationships. Throughout school, all stakeholders (not just staff, but learners, parents and visitors) should aim to ‘catch’ good behaviour. If we became complacent, many good choices could be taken for granted and many learners who always make good choices could become ‘invisible’.

Refer to Guidance for Safer Working Practice for Adults who work with Children and Young People in Education Settings for important safeguarding procedures to which we all adhere.

Roles, Rights and Responsibilities

Learners

It is the responsibility of learners to make good choices at all times and with all adults and learners in school. This will lead to learners behaving well and building up and maintaining good relationships. Learners should follow three simple rules to avoid bad choices these are known as the Temple Learning Academy Code:

1.  Treat everyone with respect

2.  Look after your school and everyone and everything in it.

3.  Always do your very best and never give up

Class teacher

All staff in our school have high expectations of the learners in terms of their relationships, choices and behaviour.

A key priority is to reward and praise good choices in order to reinforce good behaviour (including following school rules) and positive relationships – ‘catching’ learners behaving well is vital, exclaiming about how well a learner has behaved (and not becoming complacent).

With these principles in mind, specific responsibilities of the class teacher are to:

·  praise learners on individual/group basis (public praise is very powerful), making explicit why: what rule they have followed, or what choice they have made

·  follow our warnings system, making explicit why: always state what rule they have broken, and always record the incidents

·  display in the classroom the consequences of their choices (both positive and negative; see Consequences, below) – this can help when you explain why you are praising/warning

·  be consistent with all consequences

·  treat each learner fairly and with respect and understanding

·  apply these principles, roles and responsibilities with their own class and around school

·  be a positive role model by demonstrating positive relationships with everyone in school

·  keep a record and any relevant notes if a learner misbehaves and/or receives a warning

·  having followed regular procedures and consequences, seek help and advice from a colleague (e.g. member of Leadership Team)

·  liaise with external agencies, as necessary, to support and guide the progress of each learner e.g. discuss the needs of a learner with the education social worker or LA behaviour support service

·  report to parents about the learner’s social and emotional aspects of school life, including behaviour and relationships.

Support Staff

It is the responsibility of teaching assistants, office staff and all other adults in school to support the Principal and teachers in meeting the above objectives. As with teachers, a key priority is to reward and praise good choices in order to reinforce good behaviour (including following school rules) and positive relationships. All staff should be proactive in ‘catching’ learners behaving well and exclaiming about how well a learner has behaved.

Executive Principal and Principal Primary Phase

In addition to the above, it is the responsibility of the Executive Principal and the Principal Primary Phase to:

·  support the staff by implementing the policy, including the above objectives, and by setting the standards of behaviour

·  implement this policy consistently throughout the school, and to report to Governors, when requested, on its effectiveness (under the School Standards and Framework Act 1998)

·  ensure the health, safety and welfare of all learners in the school

·  maintain record of all reported serious incidents of misbehaviour

·  issue fixed-term suspensions to individual learners for serious acts of misbehaviour and for repeated or very serious acts of anti-social behaviour, the Principal may permanently exclude a learner; both these actions are only taken after the school Governors have been notified.

Parents/carers

The school works collaboratively with parents/carers so learners receive consistent messages about how to behave. We aim to build a supportive dialogue between the home and the school. We inform parents/carers immediately if we have concerns about their child’s welfare or behaviour – this includes if a child receives five warnings or if there is a pattern of regularly receiving warnings.

We expect parents/carers to:

·  be aware that we have school rules (often communicated to parents) and to support them

·  co-operate with the school

·  support their child’s learning

·  support the school’s decision when applying consequences to deal with any specific incident/issue

If parents/carers have any concern about the way that their child has been treated, they should initially contact the class teacher. If the concern remains, they should contact the Principal, and if still unresolved, the school Governors. If these discussions cannot resolve the problem, a formal grievance or appeal process can be implemented.

Working together for good behaviour in schools is a helpful document for parents/carers, available on the following website (reference to this will be made to parents/carers when appropriate):

http://publications.teachernet.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/DCSF-00960-2009.pdf

Governors

The Governing Body has the responsibility of setting down these general guidelines on standards of discipline and behaviour, and of reviewing their effectiveness. The Governors support the Principal in carrying out these guidelines.

The Principal has the day-to-day authority to implement the school behaviour and discipline policy, but Governors may give advice to the Principal about particular disciplinary issues. The Principal must take this into account when making decisions about matters of behaviour.

Consequences

Positive consequences

Each teacher and their class develop their own systems of reward and praise, based on the overall school principals set out in this policy. This will include at least individual and class rewards and typically, especially with older learners, group rewards to promote inter-personal relationships.

Some of the positive consequences for the good learning, good choices and good behaviour that children show are:

·  regular verbal feedback to reinforce positive behaviour

·  reference to good role models

·  learners are congratulated

·  stickers or other small prizes/treats

·  certificates: usually at least one based on learning or based on a Social and Emotional Aspect of Learning are given in Friday Assemblies

·  Golden Time if a class has achieved a class target

·  Kind Class Tokens are given to learners for good choices, good relationships, politeness, co-operation or acts of kindness in school – the class with the most Kind Class Tokens are awarded the Kind Class Cup in Friday Assemblies.

Sweets are rarely used as rewards; as a healthy school, we prefer to reward in other ways. Where they are, it would be by an external party and would meet standards set out here.

Assemblies, especially our Friday Assemblies, are an opportunity to publicly celebrate the good choices children have made in school and to share some of the good work they have been producing. Also important is to celebrate achievements out of school in order to promote a wider range of interests and a broad outlook.

Attendance is also rewarded. We give termly certificates for good attendance and at the end of the year there is a reward for all learners who have attained outstanding attendance.

Negative consequences

Staff at the Temple Learning Academy consistently and clearly employ a hierarchy of negative consequences (our ‘warnings’) if a learner breaks a school rule. This is to ensure a safe and effective learning environment in which positive, happy, healthy relationships flourish.

We have just three school rules:

·  We keep hands, feet and objects to ourselves

·  We follow instructions

·  We use positive language

We have a series of consequences if someone breaks a rule:

1. A reminder about behaviour and choices

2. Five minutes off break and/or away from group

3. Time out of class and missed break or 15 minutes off lunch

4. Time out of class and 30 minutes of lunch play missed

5. Learner sees Principal and parents are informed

Low-level, on-going disruptive or uncooperative behaviour (e.g. not following instructions straight away, talking in class, and interrupting) are small issues but over time may stop a learner and others from learning or feeling settled. We aim to keep this to a minimum and aim to spot patterns when warnings occur. The following stages are followed to reduce such behaviour:

Stage 1: a letter to parents to inform of high number of warnings caused by low-level disruptive/un-cooperative behaviour incidents; this stage would typically begin in the first half of a term

Stage 2: a letter to parents to advise this has continued and therefore we need to see an improvement within a fixed period of time; a behaviour chart at school to track incidents will be used (in addition to any other SEAL interventions that may be used); this stage would typically begin in the second half of a term

Stage 3: a meeting between parent, learner, learning mentor and teacher

Serious misbehaviour (e.g. disrespect to staff, property or cultures, swearing, fighting) is very rare at Temple Learning Academy. Such behaviour would mean warnings are automatically by-passed. Similarly, any pattern in warnings or consistent warnings means parents are contacted. We contact parents to keep them in the picture and to discuss ways to respond and gain a consistent message between home and school. A serious incident form is completed in such cases.

We do recognise that there are occasionally overriding factors or circumstances, but these are rare and so variation from the warnings system is rare. This is to maintain their effect and impersonal nature i.e. we aim to remove the personal judgement so learners understand and accept the school rules. We allow for differentiation of sanctions where appropriate. This is to reflect different levels of culpability (or fault) while maintaining consistency and fairness of the treatment of learners.

We expect learners to try their best in all activities. If they do not do so, we may ask them to redo or complete a task.

We expect learners to make good choices and older learners to set a good example to younger ones.

We expect learners to not support the misbehaviour of their peers.

We expect and encourage learners to tell an adult of misbehaviour.

The safety of all the learners is paramount in all situations. If a learner’s behaviour endangers the safety of others, the class teacher stops the activity and prevents the learner from taking part for the rest of that session.

The class teacher discusses the school rules with each class, and also creates a Classroom Charter as part of their New Beginnings SEAL work. This is agreed by the learners and displayed on the wall of the classroom. In this way, every learner in the school knows the standard of behaviour that we expect in our school. This is shared with new learners who enter during the school year.

The school does not tolerate bullying of any kind. If we discover that an act of bullying or intimidation has taken place, we act immediately to stop any further occurrences of such behaviour. (See Appendices)

Staff would only need to intervene physically to restrain learners or to prevent injury to a learner, or if a learner is in danger of hurting him/herself. All staff are ‘Team Teach’ trained and the actions that we take are in line with government guidelines on the restraint of children/learners.